The indie box office has rebound from lackluster returns last week thanks to strong results from A24’s “Mid 90s” and Fox Searchlight’s “Can You Ever Forgive Me?”
“Mid 90s” is the directorial debut of Jonah Hill and stars Sunny Suljic as a 13-year-old living in 1995 Los Angeles with his abusive brother (Lucas Hedges) and his single mother (Katherine Waterston) and who joins a skateboarding crew filled with some questionable skaters.
Debuting on four screens, the film has given A24 two of the top three per screen averages of 2018, earning $249,500 for an average of $62,375. Only fellow A24 release “Eighth Grade” ($65,949) and National Geographic’s “Free Solo” ($73,572) have posted higher averages.
“Can You Ever Forgive Me?” stars Melissa McCarthy in the true story of Lee Israel, a struggling writer who makes a fortune by creating forgeries of personal letters written by famous authors. Debuting on five screens, the film earned $150,000 for an average of $30,000, matching the start of another recent Fox Searchlight release, “The Old Man & the Gun.” Richard E. Grant also stars in this film directed by Marielle Heller.
“Old Man & the Gun,” meanwhile, expanded to 802 screens and grossed $2 million to bring its total to $4.2 million. “Free Solo” expanded to 251 screens and added $1 million to bring its total to $3.6 million after four weekends.
Among other holdovers, Amazon’s “Beautiful Boy” expanded to 48 screens and earned $439,000 for a 10-day total of $722,000. Annapurna’s “The Sisters Brothers” is near $2 million after four weekends, earning $742,000 from 1,012 screens. Finally, Bleecker Street’s “Colette” made $585,000 in its fifth weekend for a total of $3.7 million.